Took you long enough
by SmoothFluffle
Summary: It took Max exactly 4 months to get El to slightly acknowledge her. It took Max exactly 10 months to be friends with El. But after that, it only took 2 weeks to befriend her. And she decided they were totally worth it.


**AN: I know those ice cream flavors (maybe) didn't exist back in the day, but let's pretend they did. Shout out to Ben and Jerry's for putting their flavors on their page. Also, I know Ferris BDO wasn't released until '86, but let's pretend time line falls into place, okay? The period leak is thanks to Byzinha Lestrange, I just borrowed it from her story "They just like to fight" (seriously check it out, it is AMAZINGG).**

 **The pack of bitches' (lmao I love that) last names are the same as the Heathers'! Kudos to those who could tell! Also, because Duke was the least mean out of them, I decided to make her a bit more likeable here, as well. Also, I have no idea how IQ works, so I googled it and the result was that. Sorry!**

* * *

It took Max exactly 4 months to get El to slightly acknowledge her.

The boys would visit her in her quarantine in the cabin, and she would tag along; but that didn't mean she was comfortable.

Eleven made it _very_ clear that she did not like the new redheaded girl her friends (and specially, Mike) were spending so much time with. Glares and coldness were all she received from the curly haired brunette who had her friends wrapped around her finger.

To say the least, Max didn't like her either.

But she was never mean to her.

Lucas explained that El had a different childhood ( _if you could call it that_ ) and that social relations were a foreign concept for her. She didn't know how to pretend, like everyone else did. If she liked you, she would show it; and if she didn't like you, she would show it, too.

And she did.

So Max wasn't crazy about her.

But that didn't mean she didn't want El to like _her_.

Max thought of herself as a cool person. _The coolest, okay_? And Eleven not liking her was a blow to her ego. _What was not to like_? Besides, one would think that a female friend in a group full of testosterone would do wonders for her. Max never had girl-friends. There was one girl in California, but class partners didn't really count, and borrowing notes from each other wasn't a sign of friendship. So, she never really had a girl-friend. Besides, where she came from, girls were **bitches**.

So she never really cared for them. Boys were much better, with their video games and cool tricks, she always felt in sync with them. Even more with the group of boys she befriended here in Hawkins. After El returned from Mars or whatever, Mike actually gave her a chance, and she was finally included in the party; which made her incredibly happy, even though she would never admit that to the nerds.

She would be present at the arcade hang outs, the bike races ( _skateboards still rule_ ) and the D&D campaigns ( _she got the hang of it after a few campaigns_ ). It was amazing, to say the least. The only thing that didn't make it amazing, was the girl attached to Mike's hand.

Max realized why El didn't like her one sunny April day.

The new ice cream parlor opened downtown, and Hawkins went crazy with it. So, the guys wanted to try it out and see if it was worthy of the high reviews it was getting.

" _Man, I'm going to be so mad if they only have like, vanilla and chocolate basic flavors_." Dustin had complained.

But it wasn't basic.

At all.

The ice cream bar had so many different options, that Max had to contemplate it for a few minutes, eyes wide with wonder.

She couldn't decide between the Butter Pecan and the Chunky Monkey Mike had gotten, so she decided that if the Chunky Monkey was that good she would just steal a spoonful of Mike's cup.

But she never got to try it out, because the moment she stabbed Mike's ice cream with her green plastic spoon, her skin almost _burned_ from the glare El gave her. The way the brunette almost chopped her hand with her eyes, and how they darted between Mike's indignant cry, her hand and Max's face, made Max realize why Eleven _really_ didn't like her.

The shock of it made her forget the fudge chunks and walnuts in Mike's Chunky Monkey, and she retreated her spoon from the freckled boy's cup. Quietly eating her own scoops, she thought back to all the times Eleven even glanced her way, and realized they were all connected to her and Mike's interactions.

 _Holy hell!_ _Did El thought she liked Mike? Ew!_ She glanced back to the girl in question, who was stealing spoonfuls of the boy with literal heart eyes who was being teased by the boys, and decided this had come to an end.

Later that day, she had cornered El outside the ice cream parlor under Mike's heavy watchful gaze and the curious eyes of the boys, and almost startled the brown eyed girl with the strength of her voice. " _I would never like Mike. He didn't even like me at first. He's not even my type for God's sake!"_ Eleven just blinked at first, responding with a flat _"Okay."_ But Max had a feeling she just responded to make her stop talking to her.

But a few days after that, when Will cracked a joke at Dustin's expanse and everyone laughed, her and El's eyes met for a second, and the other girl didn't stop laughing like she did before when she crossed looks with the redhead. It made Max felt a little accomplished, and she spent the rest of the afternoon looking damn smug, to the boys' bewilderment.

Max thought maybe after El passed her a bag of snacks one movie night, after catching her and Lucas' pressing their lips together under the stairs ( _like she would be locking lips in front of the stupid teasing Dustin always gave them_ ) they would start a new friendship. But that didn't happen.

As she said, Eleven started to acknowledge her, but after a few months, she realized that wasn't even a start of a friendship like she had thought.

So she decided ( _because Max was the type to decide things, okay?_ ) she would be neutral with El.

But then, high school started.

Mike spent the final week of vacations _not_ moping around like Dustin and Lucas (" _It's the last week of summer, man! School is starting again! Besides, High Schools sucks, remember? I say we pull a Ferris and skip the first day_ ") because High School was El's starting grade.

After schooling the girl for the year and a half she spent in hiding, Hopper took her to test her IQ and grade level, and the results were a shocking 137.

So they decided El would start High School with the boys. ( _And Max, but she still didn't count, right?!_ )

And it was great, really ( _for the boys, because Max wasn't even there sometimes, according to El_ ). The Hawkins High kids took in her face and her last name, and decided that El wasn't bad at all. She had the potential of becoming one of the cool kids, but she still stuck with the party of nerds Max loved so much. So, really everything was great.

Until a group of girls decided El wasn't.

The first time Eleven hugged Max was 3 months into their Freshman year.

After half a month of nearly daily reminders of why using her powers on those bitches would **not** end well, El cracked.

El and Max were not even close to being friends, but after months of acknowledging Max wasn't going away, El decided to be cordial enough to partner up and sit with her when both girls had classes without the boys.

So, one day both of them were changing in the girls' locker room after a heavy class of PE. El was in a bad mood because Katherine Chandler ( _the leader of the bitches pack_ ) had spent the whole class throwing balls at her. And there were only a few insults El could throw at her and not result in Hopper being called in (again).

After catching the girl grimacing while massaging her lower abdomen, and grabbing a pad from her pink backpack, Max realized El also had her monthly monster.

So it wasn't really a surprise when she almost exploded on Katherine after the raven haired girl entered their row and out of nowhere began to rile El up.

Flanked by Daysi McNamara and Caroline Duke, Katherine stood blocking the way out, and she watched as El clutched the pad close to her body, almost protecting it from view. Max watched in wonder as El spat back at the tall girl, never backing down, but trying to shorten their argument to escape to the bathroom.

That didn't go unnoticed by Katherine, as she realized what the white material in El's hand was and decided that the female anatomy was a _great_ thing to laugh at.

"Oh! You got the period blues! How bloody convenient." Katherine said with a sneer.

El's face paled a little and her cheeks began to take a pink tone as a few girls laughed at the joke.

Then to her shock, Katherine came closer and actually ripped the pad from El's grasp, and then proceeded to roughly push the shorter girl to the ground.

Max winced as El fell hard on her ass and banged her elbow on the metal bench.

El then sprang into action and stood up quickly; fueled by anger she pushed Katherine back with force.

Recovering from the shock, Katherine got into El's face almost snarling and Max watched as the other two girls came closer to back Katherine up.

But Max wasn't going to let that happen.

"HEY!" She yelled and pushed Katherine out of the way, getting between the two girls who were almost killing each other with their eyes.

"Get out of the way, ginger, or I'm going to snap you in two." Katherine snarled at her.

"I'd like to see you try." El spat from behind her.

Trying to control her temper and El from killing someone, Max took a deep breath and tried to deal with the situation.

"Listen, why don't you go back to wherever you came from, and leave my friend alone?"

"Why don't you go back to where **you** came from? This is **our** town. You don't belong here." Daysi said from behind Katherine.

Max suddenly noticed they were almost flat against the back lockers, cornered by the trio. They had attracted a bit of a crowd, but none of those girls had the nerve to come inside the row they were in. She saw a few girls with concerned faces and frowns, but none did anything to prevent the coming fight.

"I didn't know this was Bitches Town. I don't see any of your names around." El said scathingly, and Max could feel the energy El was letting out. A sudden pang of fear sprang in her chest and the Chief's voice rang though her head.

"Say that one more time, Hopper. I want to hear it." Katherine said menacingly.

"Katherine." Max heard Caroline's quiet voice from behind.

"I didn't know you were deaf, too." El spat, and Max could feel the girl's chest quickly pushing up against her back with her rapid breathing.

Max wished El would keep her mouth shut, but after knowing the girl for more than a year, and watching Hopper's influence on her, she knew that wouldn't happen.

"El, please, stop." Max said from the corner of her mouth.

"Shut up, Max." El said threateningly.

"Yeah, shut up Max. Why don't you go and find that little pack of nerds you two are always with? Scram!" Katherine said with a jerk of her head.

"Don't talk to her like that, you-" El started snapping but was drowned out by Katherine's booming voice.

"You what?! You what?! Say it! SAY IT!" Katherine screamed, face bright red and very close to Max's. Those words triggered some memories, and anger flared in her chest, but it died with shock as she felt pressure on the air and she was pushed a little forward with the wave of energy El let out.

She watched in shock as Katherine suddenly flew back with force ( _almost magically,_ Max thought sarcastically) connecting with Daysi and Caroline, and the three fell to the floor like a line of bowling pins.

A few sharp intakes of breath were heard around them, but Max paid no mind to them as she was pushed aside by El, who flew from the scene.

"What the hell?!" Katherine screamed from the floor, glaring at Max.

She suddenly realized that for everyone else who knew nothing about El's powers, it looked like Max had pushed Katherine away from El and her.

"Beat it." She said with a glare to the three girls who were still sprawled out on the floor, grabbing hers and El's things from the bench.

With long strides she avoided stepping on Daysi's arms ( _even though the bitch deserved it_ ).

"Show's over." She spat to the useless crowd of girls who stared at her with some kind of _admiration_ shining in their eyes. ( _What kind of messed up_ , Max thought)

She walked through the main hall of the locker rooms, and took a left towards the bathrooms, locking the door once she was inside.

She took a moment to breathe against the door and calm the frantic thumping of her heart, but ignored herself after she heard the sniffles coming from one of the stalls.

Max threw both back packs on the floor and hesitantly made her way to the only locked bathroom stall.

"El?" She said quietly.

She heard more sniffling, a quiet sob, and then the door opened to reveal the crying face of the pretty girl who a few minutes ago was pure fire behind her.

Max didn't know what to say, but any word she might have formed died on her brain when El put her arms around the redhead and hugged her.

She stood with her arms glued to her sides because _what the hell, El was hugging her!_ She then wrapped her arms around the still crying girl and comforted her for a bit, trying to calm her down.

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay, El." She murmured, rubbing the brunette's back.

"N-n-no. It's not o-okay. I used m-m-my po-po-powers and I can't do that!" El cried against Max's shoulder.

"It's okay. Nobody saw. It's okay, really. They think I pushed her. Your secret is safe with me, I promise."

El separated from her and Max took a pitiful look at the other girl's face because, well, El was an ugly crier, _who knew_. But who was she to judge. Lord knows how many times Max stood crying in front of the mirror and then reflected on the horrible tears.

"You promise?" El said quietly and breathily.

"I-yeah. I promise." Max said seriously.

And to her surprise, El took a shaky breath, sniffled and gave her a watery smile.

 _Wow_ , Max thought. Now she understood why Mike looked like the sun came out of this girl's eyes when she smiled. Because after all the time under her hard stares and coldness, Max was getting the sunny warmth of El's eyes and she liked it. She liked it!

"I've been a jerk to you. I'm sorry." El apologized with sheepish eyes and a grimace.

"Yeah, you have. But you were awesome out there, so you're forgiven."

The reminder of the recent events brought annoyance to El's eyes and she let out a big sigh looking at the ceiling. Then her eyes were brought back to Max with a grimace.

"They'll be after you now, you know?"

"Well, I hate to quote Gone With The Wind, but," Max started, talking about their Lit project. "My dear, I don't give a damn." She finished with a dramatic voice.

They giggled together for a few minutes, and then El gave a big sniffle. She walked towards the sink and sprayed some fresh water to her sticky face. Max's eyes zeroed on a big red half-circle on El's butt.

"Uhh... El?"

Their eyes met on the mirror, and Max gestured to the period stain on El's gray sweatpants. The girl turned around and turned her neck to inspect the back of her pants on the mirror.

"Ah, shit." The girl's face crumpled with frustration. "The pad."

"Wait." Max went to the door and grabbed El's backpack, searching the pockets for another pad, and then went back to give it to her. She watched as the girl went inside a stall and after a few minutes she heard her swear.

"I can't put it on. My underwear is stained, too."

"Well, where are your clothes?" Max said, going back to their things and searching El's bag for her normal clothes, but only finding notebooks, crumpled sheets of paper and a disgustingly sweet note from Mike.

"Uhhh..." started El, keeping quiet for a few heartbeats. "Out in the locker." She finished quietly.

Max rolled her eyes and mentally cursed the girl, but then let out a big sigh. "I'll go get it. Stay there."

She heard a quiet " _Where else would I go_?" and rolled her eyes again. Why did that seemingly shy girl had such a big mouth? That was what got them in this mess in the first place. _No, scratch that_ , Max thought. Who started this was that great idiot Katherine, who picked on every living thing that took attention from her.

Lucas is right. _High School sucks_.

She mentally prepared herself for another verbal match, but she found the place satisfactorily empty. _Mmm, maybe there is a God_.

She took notice of the open locker door that belonged to El, and was honestly not surprised to see the girl's things on the floor, and no sign of her clothes.

Sighing, she crouched down and picked everything up, shoving it inside El's locker.

Then, she opened hers and took out her own clothes.

She went back to the bathroom, chuckling a little as she heard El humming to herself inside the stall. She balled the clothes and passed them to her through the space close to the floor. "They took your clothes, but you can have mine."

"But, what about you?"

"I'll be fine." Max was _not_ going to be fine.

She took notice of her tank top and cotton shorts, and prayed that the school caught on fire so they sent everyone home.

She waited patiently against the wall, taking notice that they were probably missing an entire class, but _screw that_ , she thought. Besides, she hated Mr. Kowalski.

After a few minutes, El came out in Max's jeans and her black Ghostbusters t-shirt, but tossed her green jacket back at her.

"So you can cover up a little."

Max smiled and put the jacket on, zipping it up so it hid her cleavage, and pulling the hem so it covered her lower hips.

El fidgeted a little, and then gave Max a hesitant smile.

"You called me your friend."

"Huh?"

"Out there. You called me your friend." El clarified.

"Oh. Yeah..." Max rubbed the back of her neck "I'm sorry. That was presumptuous of me. I know you don't really like me-"

"No. I told you, I really am sorry for being a jerk to you. And... I do want to be your friend."

"Oh!" Max exclaimed. "Well, okay. Friends?" She extended her hand and thought back to the first time she did this, _and the little shit ignored her_. She mentally snorted and decided she liked El.

But once again, El refused her handshake and grabbed her whole arm, bringing her close and hugging her.

The two girls embraced for a few seconds before they separated with a smile.

They heard the ringing that signaled the end of the current period, and both girls rushed to grab their things.

"You pull that off better than me." Max said gesturing to her Ghostbusters t-shirt while they walked to the locker room's exit.

"Thank you. Your panties are really comfortable, too."

"Shut up." Max said as Eleven laughed, and she couldn't help the grin on her face as she closed the locker room's door.

A few days later, Katherine and her sidekicks took revenge on Max by tripping her when she was getting her lunch at the cafeteria.

She felt the floor move from under her, and suddenly her apple juice was all over her shirt, and her back was on the floor.

She felt her face getting red as everybody laughed, but then El was there, gripping her hand and pulling her up.

Eleven only had to sniff ( _like a dog. A telekinetic dog_. She would laugh later with El, the guys pleased but weirded out by their sudden friendship) to know Katherine had her period, and when Max was standing next to her, she took great satisfaction in watching Katherine's face go from smug and mean, to horrified as a trickle of blood ran down her leg and made itself be visible by the short denim skirt she was wearing.

Daysi smothered a gasp against her hand, and Caroline let out a surprised laugh as everyone else laughed. "Oh my god. IS THE RED SEA!" A boy yelled laughing.

"Oh. You've got the period blues. How bloody convenient." El whispered to a horrified Katherine, who promptly flew from the cafeteria, her two sidekicks behind her.

El pulled a laughing Max to the table where the boys were seated; Max took the napkins Lucas offered her, and pressed them against her shirt to soak the juice from it.

She shared a secret grin with El, who was comfortably nestled against Mike's side, as if nothing had happened.

It took Max exactly 10 months to be friends with El.

But after that, it only took 2 weeks to befriend her.

And she decided they were totally worth it.

* * *

 **The italics where Max's thoughts, and it was SO fun to write her. I wanted her to be likeable, but still be sarcastic as hell, because I feel like she's just that kind of person, you know?**

 **Also, the only thing I could think about when El was crying was Kim Kardashian's ugly crying face and I decided El would have one, too. LMAOO.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this!**

 **Please Review!**


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